Classics Club Spin

 It's time for another Classics Club Spin! You can find out about it here. My list:

1. The Watsons by Jane Austen
2. Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore
3. Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
4. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
5. My Antonia by Willa Cather
6. The Wisdom of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton
7. In the High Valley by Susan Coolidge
8. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
9. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
10. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
11. The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell
12. Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
13. Elizabeth, Captive Princess by Margaret Irwin
14. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
15. Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
16. Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery
17. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
18. The Painted Garden by Noel Streatfeild
19. Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson
20. The Chaplet of Pearls by Charlotte Mary Yonge

Hopefully, this will help me to make a bit of progress with my list, of which I've been rather neglectful of late.

October Books

I haven't done a monthly recap post for a while, but I haven't posted much lately so I thought I'd do a summary of what I've read this month.

 

 

Firstly, I finally finished Lord of the Rings! I think it's been round about a year, perhaps just over, since I first picked up The Fellowship of the Ring. I tend to be very slow about reading long books - I need to take breaks to read other things in the middle - but I didn't quite expect to take so long to finish. I did enjoy it, and am partly tempted to start over again with FOTR, since it feels like an age since I read that. At any rate, I can now say that I have read it.

I made some progress with Mount TBR this month; I'm still hopelessly behind my goal of 24 books, but I did get a few off: The Return of the King (as mentioned above), Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, and Forged in the Fire by Ann Turnbull. Scarlet was a disappointment - despite having really enjoyed Cinder (last year), I found this a bit of a chore to get through; I think I just wasn't that interested in Scarlet and Wolf or their story. I did enjoy the bits with Cinder and Kai more. I'll probably still move on to Cress eventually, as it sounds like I'll enjoy it more, but it's not a top priority. Forged in the Fire I really enjoyed - despite also taking me a long time to read - but it's the kind of book you can quite easily put down and come back to without too much trouble. It's the sequel to No Shame, No Fear, which I read quite a number of years ago now, about Quakers and religious persecution in seventeenth-century England; this book (as the title suggests) deals with the years of the plague and the Great Fire of London. I'd recommend both books, and am looking forward to reading the third one, Seeking Eden.

 

Other books I've read this month:

The Bookseller's Tale by Ann Swinfen (reviewed here)

Jane Austen and Names by Maggie Lane; this was quite an interesting read, although short, although I already knew a bit about the subject so there wasn't that much that was new, and there were a couple of things that were incorrect, although these were pretty minor things. There was an index of names mentioned in Jane Austen's book at the back, which I thought was helpful.

Mr. Majeika on the Internet by Humphrey Carpenter; a fun, but kind of wacky children's book, that I'd definitely have enjoyed as a child.

Adrienne and the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer; enjoyable, but I prefer the earlier books in the series.

A Very Distant Shore by Jenny Colgan; this was OK.

 

Also, this is my 100th post! I find it hard to believe I've written so many, but there you are.

Footnotes: October 2017

 

Footnotes is a monthly link-up hosted by Ashley and Emily. It's all about sharing quotations. Just in time, I'm joining up with the October prompt, which is: a quotation from a poem.

 

There were quite a few quotations I could have shared this month, but I've chosen a short quote from Charlotte Bronte's poem "Gilbert":

            For words oft give but echo faint

            Of thoughts the mind conceives.

 

I've definitely experienced thoughts and feelings that I wasn't able to express in words; sometimes this might be because I don't have the words or don't understand my thoughts well enough, but other times it does seem like language is inadequate. However, one of the joys of collecting quotations is that sometimes you find that others have said things that express your thoughts perfectly, when you weren't able to do so yourself.

Weekly Poem: Psalm 13 by Mary Herbert

How long, O Lord, shall I forgotten be?

What? ever?

How long wilt thou thy hidden face from me

Dissever?

How long shall I consult with carefull sprite

In anguish?

How long shall I with foes triumphant might

Thus languish?

Behold me, Lord, let to thy hearing creep

My crying;

Nay, give me eyes and light, lest that I sleep

In dying;

Lest my foe brag, that in my ruin he

Prevailed;

And at my fall they joy that, troublous, me

Assailed.

No! no! I trust on thee, and joy in thy

Great pity:

Still, therefore, of thy graces shall be my

Song's ditty.

 

Mary Herbert

Book Review: The Bookseller's Tale by Ann Swinfen

Summary

The Bookseller's Tale is the first in a series of mysteries set in 14th-century Oxford. The book takes place a few years after the population has been decimated by the Black Death, the effects of which are still widely felt. Nicholas Elyot, the main character, is a bookseller who lost his wife to the plague. One day he finds the body of a student in the River Cherwell, and discovers that his death was not due to natural causes. The town authorities don't seem to have any interest in investigating the murder, but Nicholas and his friend Jordain Brinkylsworth, a member of the university, feel they owe it to the victim to find out.

 

Thoughts 

One of the big things I liked about this book was the historical detail - we find out quite a bit about medieval Oxford, the university, and particularly about Nicholas' work as a bookseller, which I found really interesting. Some readers might not enjoy these details as they mean there is a little less focus on the mystery, but I think they seemed to fit naturally into the story. I also enjoyed the scenes of domestic life, and how the effects of the Black Death were explored; for example, the characters feel that since "the Death", people are more immune to suffering and thus less willing to help others. I'm not sure whether this would have been the case but it's not something I'd thought about before, so it's interesting to consider.

 

As for the mystery, I thought it was good. Perhaps not surprisingly, books play a significant role, and it was one of those mysteries where there are various clues which don't make sense and have to be pieced together. There were a few twists along the way, which I didn't see coming (though perhaps others might).

 

The one thing I thought could have been improved on the characterisation. The main characters were all likeable enough, but they seemed a bit flat and forgettable; none of them exactly leapt off the page. Still, there were enough interesting things about this to keep me reading, and I'm hoping the characters might develop more in later books.
 

All in all, I thought this was a good read, and I'm looking forward to continuing with the series. (There are four books at present, and hopefully more to come.) I might also check out some of the author's other books, as most of them also sound interesting. If you enjoy mysteries, and/or have an interest in history or the Middle Ages, then I'd definitely suggest checking this out.

 

At time of posting, this is currently discounted to 99p/$1.29 on Kindle.

Weekly Poem: She walks in beauty, like the night



photo from Unsplash

She walks in beauty, like the night

   Of cloudless climes and starry skies,

And all that's best of dark and bright

   Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

   Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

   Or softly lightened o'er her face,

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

   How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

   So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

   But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

   A heart where love is innocent.

Lord Byron